Wisdom Wednesday #4: Art in Times of Crises

We say it all the time: Art is important.

Some of us radicals may even say that it is essential - a human right.
But do we really believe that?

With so many other dominant forces like money, military, media & politics throwing their weight around our lives, what real chance, does something like art have?

Well, it depends on what we mean when we say “art”.

If we’re talking about the objects on display in museums and galleries, then… I’m not even sure I as an artist think we have a chance. Art as a product is like any other product in a market - fully dependent on the mechanics of supply and demand, industry opinion, and those same dominant forces outlined in the previous paragraph.

That doesn’t sound all that powerful to me.

But, if we are talking about the human capacity to express, the human ability to manifest imagination into reality, and the human need to transform what is, into what could be? Then, I would say, you are onto something.

Because when you think about it, how do all those previously mentioned dominant forces maintain their hold on our society? Is it not through the stories they tell, and the stories we then tell ourselves?

Is not storytelling one of the most elemental of art forms?

How do these governments, militaries, corporations and politicians get us to believe in their power? Through exhibitions, performances, pomp and circumstance, photos, video, movies, reporting, literature - essentially, the arts.

When we realize that Art is the primary force painting our world views, illustrating our truths, and framing our perspectives, then it’s easy to see how powerful it really is.

Art indeed has changed the world, it is changing the world right now, and will be what shapes the world to come. Because art is all about shaping materials and ideas into something new.

Whether you believe man was made on the 6th day, or over millions of years of evolution the artistic process of creation is the same. We were formed from what we were not, into what we are, through a system of intelligent change.

Art, like religion, like technology, is only as good as those who wield it. When art becomes anything other than the honest expression of the inner creative spirit, it becomes design, when design is used to transfer information it becomes communication, when communication becomes unidirectional it becomes propaganda, and when that propaganda seeks only to manipulate and coerce, it becomes oppression.

But in its rawest and purest form, art is liberating. It elevates the consciousness to all parties involved - which is precisely why art and oppression are always in conflict. They cannot co-exist, for one eventually destroys the other.

So for those of us on the side of liberation, the directive is clear:

I am one of those who believes any process can be elevated into an art form when it engages the following :

1. The human capacity to express

2. The human ability to manifest imagination into reality

3. The human urge to transform what is, into what could be.

I would add a fourth, which perhaps is what powers three: The human need to connect. Connect with self, community, god, reality etc. In this way, art is no different than worship, no different then service, no different than love.

When we think of “changing the world” I imagine two approaches.

One is the manipulative change that looks to move mountains, control resources, influence governments, markets and people, and impose itself on all of the above.

This is exerting change.

The other is the embodied change - It is an approach, not of moving the mountains but scaling them, and enjoying the journey and views that their height alone can afford. It is the recognition that we each are a composite of this world, and so, through our own change our world is changed as well. That through influencing our own transformation, we inspire it in all that surrounds us.

This is being change.

But there I go again, with my idealistic poetics…

When it’s 3am and you’ve just heard reports of another bomb dropped on innocent civilians, another statement from our government full of lies, another Black teen disappeared, another bill increase while trillionaires triple their net worth… it gets hard to think about art, let alone the change it can make.

But it’s in those moments, and in that time, when our capacity to express, our ability to manifest, our urge to transform and need to connect may be both all we have left, and all we’ve ever needed.

Till then, be art!
-Daniel